


The Stowaway

by aceofjapan



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Christmas Fluff, Dancing, Inspired by Doctor Who, It's Vicmas Baby!, M/M, Pining, Some slight sads, Space Ship Captain Victor, Time Travel, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but really mostly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28283283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofjapan/pseuds/aceofjapan
Summary: Victor let out an amused chuckle. “Say, Yuri, this mysterious stowaway doesn’t look like you, by any chance, does he? Maybe we’ve got a time traveller on our hand.”Yuri just about snarled at that. “Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t look anything like that pig!”“Well then”, Victor said, clicking his tongue and straightening up from his slouched position against the wall. “let’s see him then. Bring him here.”“Here?”, Yuri said, incredulous.“Why not?”, Victor said, “It’s Christmas, right? Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 25
Kudos: 97





	The Stowaway

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Vicmas!!!
> 
> After all the angst this month I come bearing fluff for you today!  
> This was inspired by one of my favourite Christmas songs, [The Stowaway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeCsg6TWQkc) from the Doctor Who Soundtrack. If you know it, you might be able to guess where this goes.
> 
> Thank you to the lovely [Hufflehobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hufflehobbit_writes) and [ia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncandescentAntelope/pseuds/IncandescentAntelope) for beta reading ❤
> 
> I hope you all have lovely, safe and healthy holidays and some time to come to rest and relax. Love you all ❤ Enjoy!

Standing at the edge of the room, mug in his hand, Victor looked out over the mingling crowd of his crew.

The mess hall was filled with festive music, the sound of chatter and laughter, the heavy, sweet scent of mulled wine. The usually bare and functional walls and furnishings of the hall were decorated in bright ornaments and glittering garlands, colourful cloth spread on the tables on which an array of food and drink was displayed. Shifting from one foot to another, Victor tried to ignore the large letters affixed to the wall above his head, proclaiming “Happy Birthday, Captain!”

It was a nice gesture, he knew, that they spared a thought for him on this day, during their yearly holiday celebration. The party was not for him, really, it was just one of the very few days of the year when the crew—apart from a handful of unlucky members who had to look after the essentials—was allowed to let loose and enjoy themselves.

Victor would have just as well liked to leave them to it—after all, no one wanted the boss hanging around and seeing the silly things one got up to after a few helpings of punch. He didn’t want to spoil their fun. They worked hard all year—they deserved this. He would have been fine, really, with spending the evening on his own in his cabin, letting the noises of the party fade away in the distance, but Chris, his first mate, wouldn’t hear of it.

“It’s your birthday!”, he’s said, “And I won’t have you spending it alone. No one will mind you being there. We’ll just make it a joint celebration.”

It was a nice thought, to be sure.

But it ended the same way every time, with Victor leaning against some wall or another, nursing a single drink, watching his crew enjoy themselves until he felt it was late enough that he could slip away unnoticed.

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to join in or talk to anyone. But whenever he tried, it was nothing but stiff formalities and polite small talk. No one wanted to let their guard down around the Captain. No one wanted to talk about anything real. Victor couldn’t blame them. After all, it wasn’t like he was letting his guard down either.

Even if he did, he wouldn’t know what to say. There wasn’t much to his life on the ship beyond his duty as a captain. And no one at these affairs wanted to talk about work.

With a sigh, Victor drained the last of his mulled wine, letting the spices and the sharpness of orange and alcohol cover his tongue. Perhaps it was time that he took his leave. He could just spend the rest of the evening cuddling with his beloved starvipian Makkachin in his cabin.

He was just about to push off from the wall when he saw the starboard door of the mess hall opening, Yuri hurrying through, a pinched expression on his face.

That in itself was not surprising—there was a pinched expression on Yuri’s face more often than not. Even more so today, when he had drawn the lot to keep an eye on things on the ship, along with Georgi manning the bridge and Leo in the engine room, while most everyone else was having a blast at the holiday party. Of course he’d claimed he hadn’t wanted to go to the stupid party in the first place, but Victor knew him well enough to see the envy burning in his eyes even as he crossed the hall now.

But there was something more—something urgent in the way he peered around the room until he spotted Victor and then hurried towards him, unheeding of the people he jostled out of the way on his path.

Victor received him with a raised eyebrow, an unspoken question. Yuri waited until he was close enough that no one would overhear before he spoke, another indication that he had not come to make small talk.

“We found a stowaway”, he hissed with a scowl, and Victor’s eyebrow rose even further.

“A stowaway?”, he asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice, “On my ship?”

“No, on the fucking Titanic”, Yuri spat back, “of course on your ship, moron.”

Victor huffed a half-hearted laugh. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you all the reasons why that is impossible.”

Yuri shrugged. “Well, impossible or not, that’s what’s happened. So what are we going to do about it?”

Victor hummed, a contemplative finger pressed to his lips. “Well, where are they now?”

“Georgi and Chihoko are keeping an eye on him on the bridge”, Yuri huffed.

“Is he dangerous?”

A scoff. “Doesn’t look it. Wasn’t armed, anyway. But who knows.”

“Human?”

“From the looks of it.”

“Did he say anything? Who he is, what he wants?”

“I—not really, but…”, Yuri hesitated, looking around and leaning closer as if anyone was close enough to overhear them over the din. “It was a bit freaky. He knows my name.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Said it all natural-like when I ran across him in Storage. Like he knew me. When I demanded to know how he knew my name he backpedaled. Said that it was actually his own name and he didn’t know it was mine, too. But that’s a load of bullshit if you ask me. Really suspicious.”

Victor let out an amused chuckle. “Say, Yuri, this mysterious stowaway doesn’t look like you, by any chance, does he? Maybe we’ve got a time traveller on our hand.”

Yuri just about snarled at that. “Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t look anything like that pig!”

“Well then”, Victor said, clicking his tongue and straightening up from his slouched position against the wall. “let’s see him then. Bring him here.”

“Here?”, Yuri said, incredulous.

“Why not?”, Victor said, “It’s Christmas, right? Let’s hear what he has to say.”

“And if he’s dangerous?”

Victor shrugged. “If he had done anything to Georgi, Chihoko would have notified us. If he’s dangerous enough to eliminate Georgi _and_ incapacitate Chihoko, he’d only pick us off too if we went there by ourselves now. And before we break up the party to take the whole crew to the bridge, we can better bring him here.”

Yuri glared up at him. “Yeah? And what if he picks me off when I go to fetch him?”

Victor gave him a placid smile. “Don’t you always boast about your combat skills, Yura? I’m sure you can handle yourself against a stowaway.”

In all honesty, Victor had already checked in with Chihoko on his chip during the conversation, and it seemed like the stowaway hadn’t made any trouble on the bridge. But it was worth it to see the angry red that Yuri’s face took on as he stomped off.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the starboard door opened once more and Yuri returned, a second figure by his side.

It was a man, wearing a dark blue suit that looked to be good quality, if slightly rumpled, his dark hair pushed back from his forehead, and sharp, deep eyes behind blue-framed glasses. All things considered not exactly what Victor had imagined when he’d heard the word “stowaway”.

But what threw him off the most was the smile that spread on the man’s face when he laid eyes on Victor.

A bright, incandescent smile that lit up his entire face with warmth, eyes sparkling.

Victor had definitely never seen the man before, and he’d always considered himself pretty unflappable, had had to be, as the captain of this large a starship at such a young age. But having that smile directed at him made his heart skip a beat.

Yuri led the man toward Victor with what seemed like a less than gentle hand on his arm, though it didn’t appear like he needed much manoeuvring.

Flicking his eyes to the crowd as they approached, it seemed the partying crew didn’t pay them any mind. You should think that a new person appearing on a starship in the middle of nowhere at the edge of the galaxy would warrant some attention, but it seemed most people were too wrapped up in their drink and dance to notice anything. Victor did catch Chris giving him a questioning glance across the room though, and gave him a minute shrug.

Yuri and the stranger came to a stop in front of him, the stranger‘s smile still warm, though a little subdued now, as he peered at Victor.

Victor returned the gaze, scanning the stranger‘s face for something he recognised, or for any hint of malice. But there was nothing that Victor could detect; his face was open and warm, his features beautiful with shining, expressive eyes. Victor was quite sure that he‘d never seen him before.

„So“, he said, „You‘re the stowaway then.“

The stranger‘s smile turned a little uncertain at that.

„I suppose I am“, he replied, voice soft and tinged with an accent that Victor couldn‘t quite place, „and you are the captain of this ship?“

Though it had all the right inflections of a question, it didn‘t sound like a question at all, the way he said it. Like he already knew the answer.

„That I am“, Victor said, raising an eyebrow, „so tell me. Who are you, and how long have you been hiding out on my ship?“

„And how the fuck did you know my name?“, Yuri threw in from the sidelines.

„Oh, I…“, the stranger cast uncertain glances between Victor and Yuri, biting his lower lip, which Victor tried not to focus too much on, „I didn‘t? I already tried to explain to him before. It‘s my own name.“

„Really?“ Victor crossed his arms before his chest. „Your name just so happens to be Yuri, just like my young crewmate here? Doesn‘t that seem like too much of a coincidence?“

„Well, it‘s not exactly the same, actually“, he said, „It‘s Yuuri.“

The name did indeed roll off his tongue a little differently, and familiar enough that at least it didn‘t seem like an obvious lie.

„Still makes no damn sense, though“, Yuri said, „why did you call it out then, when I saw you? Who does that, just shouts out his own name like that?“

The stowaway—Yuuri, if that was indeed his name—gave a sheepish little shrug. It was strange; he didn‘t seem to be nervous at all, despite having been discovered aboard a ship full of strangers who might do who knew what to him for his intrusion.

It was mystifying, and not a little intriguing, the way he stood between them like he was perfectly comfortable, like his situation was not at all worrying.

„Well“, Victor said, clearing his throat, „no matter what your name is, you shouldn‘t be here. How did you get on my ship? And why shouldn‘t I just feed you to the starwhale?“

That strange, fond smile appeared again on Yuuri‘s face, a little more wistful this time perhaps. He reached out, and before Victor or Yuri could properly react, he had grabbed ahold of Victor‘s wrist and tugged him onto the dance floor.

„Come here, let‘s dance“, he said.

Victor stumbled a little from the sudden movement, but Yuuri caught him quickly, a steadying hand on his shoulder blade as he led Victor in a simple waltz.

„Oi!“, Yuri called, but as he hurried after them and made to grab Yuuri, Victor gave him a sign to stand down, for now. He was fairly certain that the stranger wasn‘t dangerous, and he was intrigued by his strange mixture of hesitance and confidence.

Besides, it had been ages since he had gotten to dance at one of these things. No one ever asked the captain to dance.

Yuuri turned them surely and steadily over the dance floor in time with the music, leading Victor so smoothly as if he knew exactly what he was thinking in any given moment.

Before Victor could prompt him again, he leaned close and murmured into the space between them, his breath brushing over Victor‘s cheek making him shiver.

„You know, there‘s someone I have to see. Someone very dear to me whom I promised to spend Christmas Day with, beg, borrow or steal.“

„Oh?“, Victor asked, raising an eyebrow. „But it‘s Christmas Day today.“

„I know“, Yuuri sighed and looked up at him, and there was true sadness in his eyes now. „I didn‘t quite make it in time. I guess I‘ll just have to wait another year.“

„Another year? Won‘t you be able to see them in between?“ Victor knitted his eyebrows. „Where are you headed, anyway? Were you going to sneak off during one of our refuelling stops?“

Yuuri just gave him a half-hearted shrug and a mysterious smile.

„Fine“, Victor sighed, „keep your secrets. Who is this important person, then? Your wife? Your husband?“

The smile widened again on Yuuri‘s face into something glowing, a slight blush rising into his cheeks that Victor found entirely too endearing.

„Not quite. Not yet, perhaps. But yes. He‘s my lover.“

„Wow.“ Victor chuckled. „He must be quite special for you to be taking this risk just to see him at Christmas. It‘s still illegal to stow away on a ship, you know.“

Yuuri pulled up his shoulders in a slight shrug. „He is special. He‘s worth it. He deserves the world.“ He sighed. „I‘m not sure sometimes, how I got so lucky, but if it will make him happy to see me at Christmas, then I _will_ see him at Christmas.“

Victor huffed a quiet laugh. „Sounds to me like he‘s the lucky one.“

A smile curled brightly on Yuuri‘s face, but looking into his eyes, Victor could see they were shining with unshed tears. „That… sorry“, Yuuri said, clearing his throat, „that sounds like something he would say.“ He took a deep breath, collecting himself, before he spoke again. Still he did not once miss a step in their dance.

„He‘s so amazing, you know. Intelligent and kind. He‘s not a patient person, but he‘s patient with me, waiting to meet me where I am. It… it‘s killing me that I can‘t be with him right now. Well…“, Yuuri shrugged and sniffed a little, holding Victor a little tighter as if to emphasise his emotion, „I _am_ with him, always. But he… he just doesn‘t know it yet.“

Victor swallowed around a lump in his throat, blinking rapidly to disperse the stubborn tears burning in his eyes. He didn‘t know why this stranger‘s tale touched him so deeply—he was usually more level-headed than this, but something about the way that this stowaway—Yuuri—was practically brimming over with emotion seemed to sweep Victor away with him.

„I‘m sure he knows“, he whispered, and Yuuri gave him a weak smile, chewing on his lower lip once more.

„Next Christmas I‘ll see him. I‘ll be around.“

Then he let out a shuddering breath as silence fell for a moment between them, and closed his eyes. Sweeping both of them across the dance floor with sure steps, Victor could see the poise and grace of his every movement, but there was more than that. There was adoration in every line of his body, devotion in every one of his breaths.

He knew that in his mind Yuuri was dancing not with Victor, but with his faraway lover.

He wasn‘t quite sure why that made a pang of hurt reverberate in his chest.

Around them, the song came to an end, and so their steps, too, slowly came to a stop, leaving both of them breathless and a little flushed. Yuuri‘s eyes were shining when he finally opened them once more.

„I think“, he said, „I think I have to go.“

Victor frowned.

„Go? Go where? We‘re not scheduled to reach another spaceport for another two weeks.“

Yuuri gave him an amused little grin, and loosened his hold on Victor, but clasped his hand for a moment longer, giving it a gentle squeeze.

„Thank you for being kind to me“, he said, „It‘s more than a lot of other people would have done.“ His smile turned softer. „Happy birthday, Victor.“

Victor blinked. „How did you—?“

In the moment, it didn‘t even occur to him that he had never given Yuuri his own name.

Yuuri let go of his hand with a chuckle and nodded meaningfully at something behind Victor. Victor turned and saw the banner proclaiming „Happy Birthday, Captain!“ still proudly displayed on the wall.

„Oh“, he said, turning back around, „yes, I suppose that would—“

He broke off.

Yuuri was gone.

* * *

They searched the entire ship, of course, but the stowaway was nowhere to be found.

It was like he had disappeared into thin air.

Speculation was rife on the ship for a while, with theories abounding, one more absurd than the other. The stranger had been a ghost, a collective hallucination, a hologram.

Victor didn‘t give heed to any of them. He had felt Yuuri, warm and breathing, flesh and blood under his hands.

He had definitely been real. But that didn‘t make it any less of a mystery.

After a few weeks, talk about the mysterious stowaway started to fade away on the ship—there were other things occupying people‘s attention, fresh gossip and newer secrets.

But Victor was not quite able to shake his thoughts of the stranger that had danced with him. He wondered where he‘d disappeared to—if he had found his way to his lover in the end. If they were secluded somewhere right now, blissful in their togetherness.

He found himself wishing that wherever Yuuri was, he was safe and happy.

Once or twice throughout the year, Victor thought he‘d caught a glimpse of Yuuri—in a busy market at a spaceport, on the endless plains during a field mission. But when he tried to take another glance, he was already gone—if he had even been there in the first place.

Perhaps it was just Victor‘s mind playing tricks on him.

Perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

The year passed in the blink of an eye and yet in agonising slowness, like a drip of honey, with none of the sweetness.

And soon, December rolled around again.

This time, he and his crew got to spend their holidays in their home port, having completed their latest mission just in time to return to the familiar sky high structures of Port Aria. Everyone was given leave until the New Year, but Victor wasn‘t quite sure what he was supposed to do with his time.

He‘d never known how to occupy himself outside of his work—he‘d been focusing so much of his attention on it so long that everything else had kind of fallen away. And he had never really minded it before. He liked his job, and he was good at it. The best.

It wasn‘t every day, after all, that someone made Captain of an exploration vessel in their early twenties.

But after he had met Yuuri, he had begun to think that maybe there should be something else in his life, something other than work and the time he spent with Makkachin.

Witnessing Yuuri‘s longing and devotion, the lengths he was willing to go just to see his lover one day in a year—Victor wanted something like that. Something so all-consuming and monumental. Something real.

He didn‘t have the slightest idea how to find something like that, but ever since he‘d had the realisation, his life felt a little more hollow than before.

It was only thanks to Yakov that Victor did not end up spending Christmas alone on his ship with only Makkachin for his company. He didn‘t have any family in Port Aria, and no friends outside of his crew, all of whom were on leave spending time with their own loved ones.

But his old commander wouldn‘t think of Victor shutting himself up on his own on Christmas, on his birthday. Instead, he dragged Victor to a holiday ball for Port Aria‘s who‘s who, a grand, glittering affair with dancing and endless amounts of food and booze.

Victor wasn‘t entirely sure he wanted to be there, but he supposed it was better than burying himself in his cabin. He tried his best to be sociable, but his thoughts kept drifting back to Yuuri. It had been exactly a year now since they had met, but every detail of that night was still stark in his mind.

He took a turn around the room, drink in hand, made small talk, politely turned down a few requests to dance.

He was just about ready to call it a night and retreat to the comfort of his ship and his pet, when he saw him.

It was Yuuri.

There was no doubt about it—it was him.

As many times as Victor had seen dark-haired, dark-eyed figures on his travels this last year, as many times as he‘d had to do a double take only to realise it was not who he‘d been hoping to see after all, this time he was sure.

Yuuri was standing at the edge of the room, clinging to a half-empty glass of champagne, looking out over the crowd.

Victor didn‘t think—he just moved, jostling his way through the crowd towards him.

He didn‘t quite know what he was trying to do, what he was expecting to happen. He knew Yuuri was in a committed, a loving relationship, one that he would move heaven and earth for.

But Victor just had to talk to him, if only to find out how life had treated him since they had last met.

„Yuuri!“, he called as he hurried the last few feet toward him, and Yuuri jumped, turning a wide-eyed gaze toward him like he had not expected anyone to speak with him.

„Yes?“, he asked, a little hesitant as Victor came to a stop in front of him.

„It‘s Victor!“

Yuuri blinked at him, then his eyes widened, colour rising into his cheeks. „Oh. Oh, you‘re Victor Nikiforov, aren‘t you? Captain of the Stammi Vicino? Youngest starship captain in the history of the ISU.“

„That‘s it!“, Victor said, grinning widely. „I wasn‘t expecting to see you here, but I am so glad that I did!“

Yuuri looked stunned. „I‘m… sorry? You know me?“

Victor hesitated, frowning. „Of… of course I know you. We met last year, remember? Last Christmas?“

Shaking his head slowly, Yuuri‘s fingers fidgeted with his champagne flute.

„I‘m sorry“, he repeated, „You must have me confused with someone else.“

„No, I‘m—“, Victor interrupted himself and only now took a moment to really look at Yuuri. It was him, right enough. He was still wearing his blue-rimmed glasses, and his hair was perhaps a touch shorter, and worn loose and soft this time around. He was wearing a suit once again, though this one was at once a lot more ill-fitting and a lot less rumpled than the one he‘d worn the year before.

Most importantly, however, Victor now realised, he looked younger.

When Victor had met him last year, he would have judged him to be his age, perhaps a year or two older, even, with a sharp jaw, steady hands and knowing eyes.

This Yuuri looked somehow, miraculously, younger in a hundred different ways, most of which Victor couldn‘t have quite put into words. His cheeks were a little more rounded, his gaze a little more fleeting, his posture less confident. He wasn‘t very young, but Victor would have bet anything that he was younger than himself.

Victor knew that time travel was an impossibility. All the experts had agreed decades ago that it couldn‘t be done.

But then, wasn‘t that exactly what Yuuri‘s presence on his ship last year had been? An impossibility.

Victor cleared his throat.

„You‘re right, I must have. I‘m sorry. Can I ask what it is you do, Yuuri? Do you work for the ISU as well?“

Yuuri regarded him with narrowed eyes, uncertain, but it seemed he decided to let it go, to not ask how Victor knew his name.

„No“, he said, „I mean, kind of. We collaborate with the ISU sometimes on various projects, but I‘m with an independent company. The JSF.“

Victor let out a small whistle. The Josephson Starlight Fellowship. A prestigious institution.

„Wow! So you‘re a physicist, then.“

Yuuri ducked his head in a nod.

„I am“, he said and his voice sounded somehow proud and embarrassed at once, „Quantum physics, to be precise.“

Victor couldn‘t help the smile that curled onto his lips, his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

_Next Christmas I‘ll see him. I‘ll be around_ , Yuuri‘s words echoed in his mind.

Victor extended his hand.

„Would you dance with me, Yuuri?“

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> If you want to be my Christmas miracle, you can leave a comment! ❤❤❤
> 
> You can also find me on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nihidea_art) and [Tumblr](http://theliteraryluggage.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Happy holidays and the happiest of birthdays to Victor Nikiforov 😊💕


End file.
